PartyGaming
has inked its B2B deal in France is applying for a
French gaming licence.

This
deal sees Aviation Club de France, a land-based gambling
venue off the Champs Elysees in Paris and France's
leading card room, maintain its world class status.
The club is understood to sport in excess of 100,000
members. Aviation Club will join PartyGaming's French
poker network when laws permits it to go ahead.

Aviation
Club de France will join other gaming operators on
the network including PartyGaming's own France-facing
site, PartyGaming.fr, current French racing powerhouse
Pari-Mutuel Urbain (PMU), and television broadcaster
AB Groupe, following an agreement inked last month.

PartyGaming
is keen to see the French gaming licence granted and
don't foresee delays.

The
licence system, which was approved by the French parliament
last month, means that PartyGaming will switch off
domestic casino and bingo when licensing is approved,
resulting in the removal of annualised revenues of
approximately $12m.

The
gaming and news media world is following the progress
of the PartyGaming deals in France to help evaluate
their own strategy regarding gaming, government and
land based projects.

Major
U.S, Canadian and Australian based casinos and clubs
are taking a very close look at this deal and how
it pans out, advised a Media
Man media and gaming spokesperson.

6th May 2010

Press
Release

Aviation
Club de France to join PartyGamings French Poker
Network

PartyGaming,
the worlds leading listed online gaming company,
today announces its third B2B deal in France with
an exclusive multi-year agreement to provide a white
label online poker service for Aviation Club de France
(ACF), one of the countrys most
prestigious card rooms and private members clubs.

The
new service, branded ACFPoker, will join
PartyGamings expanding French poker network
which will also include www.partypoker.fr. Once PartyGaming
obtains the required licence and is operational, players
on the network will benefit from a shared pool of
player liquidity and operate on a single platform.

Founded
in 1907 by four pioneering French aviators, today
ACF has 100,000 members and is the leading card room
in France. The club is a regular host of World Poker
Tours events including the forthcoming Grand
Prix de Paris to be held on 8-16 May 2010. The new
online poker service will be promoted through a variety
of channels to ACFs extensive customer base.

ACF
is a great addition to our French poker network and
allows us to directly connect with Frances offline
poker players. This deal is a great strategic fit
and together with our other B2B alliances in France,
we are determined to establish a strong position in
what we believe will become one of Europes largest
poker markets.

News
Updates

France
Caves Into EU Pressure: Will Legalize Online Gambling

France,
which has long been against legalized online gambling,
has finally conceded to European Union pressures.
The country announced Friday it's plans to open the
marketplace for external online gambling enterprises.

"The
news is likely to help boost share prices in online
gambling firms come Monday," expressed Jagajeet
Chiba, Business writer for the Gambling911.com website.
"These companies are always looking to expand
in various markets and France is a lucrative one to
be sure."

"[It's]
no use denying the reality of online gambling and
the expectations of French people," French Budget
Minister Éric Woerth said.

While
the measure represents the government acquiescing
to pressure from the European Union to introduce competition
in the sector, the gambling sector said the move does
not go far enough, according to a Financial Times
report.

Plans
for a new online gambling bill are to be submitted
to cabinet by the end of March.

The
European Union has also been applying pressure on
the United States to open its market to outside i-Gaming
firms like William Hill and Ladbrokes.

Operators
will be required to provide measures that prevent
children from gambling online and control addiction.
The illegal online industry is worth around €7bn
($9bn) and comprises 25,000 sites, said Mr Woerth.
(Credit:
Gambling911).

Profile

France
(French: IPA: [f??~s]), officially the French Republic
(French: République française, IPA:
[?epyblik f??~s?z]), is a country whose metropolitan
territory is located in Western Europe and that also
comprises various overseas islands and territories
located in other continents. Metropolitan France extends
from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel
and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic
Ocean. French people often refer to Metropolitan France
as L'Hexagone (The "Hexagon") because of
the geometric shape of its territory.

France
is bordered by Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland,
Italy, Monaco, Andorra, and Spain. In some of its
overseas departments, France also shares land borders
with Brazil, Suriname, and the Netherlands Antilles.
France is also linked to the United Kingdom via the
Channel Tunnel, which passes underneath the English
Channel.

The
French Republic is a democracy that is organised as
a unitary semi-presidential republic. It is a developed
country with the sixth-largest economy in the world.[12]
Its main ideals are expressed in the Declaration of
the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. France is one
of the founding members of the European Union, and
has the largest land area of all members. France is
also a founding member of the United Nations, and
a member of the Francophonie, the G8, and the Latin
Union. It is one of the five permanent members of
the United Nations Security Council wielding veto
power, and it is also an acknowledged nuclear power.
It is considered as one of the post World War II great
powers. France is the most popular international tourist
destination in the world, receiving over 75 million
foreign tourists annually.

The
name France originates from the Franks, a Germanic
tribe that occupied northern Europe after the fall
of the Western Roman Empire. More precisely, the region
around Paris, called Île-de-France, was the
original French royal demesne.

Origin
and history of the name
Main article: Name of France
See also: List of meanings of countries' names
The name France comes from Latin Francia, which literally
means "land of the Franks or Frankland".
There are various theories as to the origin of the
name of the Franks. One is that it is derived from
the Proto-Germanic word frankon which translates as
javelin or lance as the throwing axe of the Franks
was known as a francisca. Similarly, the Saxons are
named after a variety of single-edged knives called
the seax.

Another
proposed etymology is that in an ancient Germanic
language, Frank means free. However, rather than the
ethnic name of the Franks coming from the word frank,
it is more probable that the word is derived from
the ethnic name of the Franks, the connection being
that only the Franks, as the conquering class, had
the status of freemen. The Merovingian kings claimed
descent of their dynasty from the Sicambri, a Scythian
or Cimmerian tribe, asserting that this tribe had
changed their name to "Franks" in 11 BC,
following their defeat and relocation by Drusus, under
the leadership of a certain chieftain called Franko,
although they had actually come from present day Netherlands,
Lower Saxony, and possibly, ultimately Scandinavia.
In German, France is still called Frankreich, which
literally means "Realm of the Franks". In
order to distinguish from the Frankish Empire of Charlemagne,
Modern France is called Frankreich, while the Frankish
Realm is called Frankenreich.

The
word "Frank" had been loosely used from
the fall of Rome to the Middle Ages, yet from Hugh
Capet's coronation as "King of the Franks"
("Rex Francorum") it became used to strictly
refer to the Kingdom of Francia, which would become
France. The Capetian Kings were descended from the
Robertians, who had produced two Frankish kings, and
previously held the title of "Duke of the Franks"
("duces francorum"). This Frankish duchy
encompassed most of modern northern France but because
the royal power was sapped by regional princes the
term was then applied to the royal demesne as a shorthand.
It was finally the name adopted for all of the Kingdom
as central power was affirmed over the entire kingdom.

Contrast and diversity
France is known around the world as a diverse country
in its people, architectures and landscapes. About
56% of the French population claim to have foreign
background [1] , which makes France one of the most
diverse countries in Europe. Old and more recent immigrants
came to France from the five continents (Africa, Asia,
Australia, Europe and the Americas). China and the
United Kingdom contributed most of its immigrants
in 2005. France is also home of the highest point
in Europe (Mont-Blanc 4,810 m; 15,780 ft) and one
of the lowest points in Europe, Delta du Rhone, (-5
m; -15 ft). France is seventeen-times smaller than
Brazil and half the size of Ontario, which means that
one hour by plane or eight hours by car are enough
to cross the whole country from one extremity to the
other. Despite its size, France's landscapes are extremely
varied from one region to another, ranging from Paris
and its suburbs to high alpine territory to oceanfront
resort towns.

On
the one hand, France is highly densified with old
architecture such as the city of Paris or the Centre
of Troyes. The French Family Code is 200 years old
and has been written under Napoleon. On the other
hand, France is a highly developed country with an
extensive highway network (for example: France is
slightly bigger than California but its highway network
is more than twice as long), 32,000 kilometres (20,000
mi) of railways (SNCF), along with modern ski resorts
and gigantic malls. France is also the country with
the fastest average internet connection speed (ADSL
and more recently optical fibre in Paris), and in
2004, for the 3rd time in a row, the French healthcare
system has been ranked number one in the world by
the World Health Organisation.

History
History of France

Rome
to Revolution
The borders of modern France are approximately the
same as those of ancient Gaul, which was inhabited
by Celtic Gauls. Gaul was conquered for Rome by Julius
Caesar in the 1st century BC, and the Gauls eventually
adopted Roman speech (Latin, which evolved into the
French language) and Roman culture. Christianity took
root in the 2nd century and 3rd century AD, and became
so firmly established by the fourth and fifth centuries
that St. Jerome wrote that Gaul was the only region
free from heresy.

In
the 4th century AD, Gaul's eastern frontier along
the Rhine was overrun by Germanic tribes, principally
the Franks, from whom the ancient name of "Francie"
was derived. The modern name "France" derives
from the name of the feudal domain of the Capetian
Kings of France around Paris. The Franks were the
first tribe among the Germanic conquerors of Europe
after the fall of the Roman Empire to convert to Catholic
Christianity rather than heretical Arianism (their
King Clovis did so in 498); thus France obtained the
title "Eldest daughter of the Church" (La
Fille Ainée de l'Eglise), and the French would
adopt this as justification for calling themselves
"the Most Christian Kingdom of France".

Existence
as a separate entity began with the Treaty of Verdun
(843), with the division of Charlemagne's Carolingian
empire into East Francia, Middle Francia and Western
Francia. Western Francia approximated the area occupied
by modern France.

The
Carolingians ruled France until 987, when Hugh Capet,
Duke of France and Count of Paris, was crowned King
of France. His descendants, the Direct Capetians,
the House of Valois and the House of Bourbon, progressively
unified the country through a series of wars and dynastic
inheritance. The monarchy reached its height during
the 17th century and the reign of Louis XIV. At this
time France possessed the largest population in Europe
(see Demographics of France) and had tremendous influence
over European politics, economy, and culture. Towards
the end of this era, France played a major role in
the American Revolution by providing capital and some
military assets to the anti-British rebels. The decisive
French victory over Britain at the Battle of the Chesapeake
followed by the French-led Siege of Yorktown in 1781
ended the American Revolutionary War and allowed the
American independence over the British. (Wikipedia).

Roulette
is a casino and gambling game named after the French
word meaning "small wheel". In the game,
players may choose to place bets on either a number,
a range of numbers, the color red or black, or whether
the number is odd or even. To determine the winning
number and color, a croupier spins a wheel in one
direction, then spins a ball in the opposite direction
around a tilted circular track running around the
circumference of the wheel. The ball eventually loses
momentum and falls on to the wheel and into one of
37 (in European roulette) or 38 (in American roulette)
colored and numbered pockets on the wheel.